Israeli authorities have steadily tightened restrictions around Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque since a 1994 massacre, and Palestinian officials say the measures have accelerated sharply since October 2023, raising alarms about the systematic transformation of one of Islam’s oldest holy sites.

The Ibrahimi Mosque, built over a cave believed to contain the tombs of the prophet Abraham and his family, sits in the H2 zone of Hebron, an area that remains under Israeli military control under the 1997 Hebron Agreement. Israeli settlers live among the Palestinian population in this area, protected by a large Israeli military presence deployed across the old city streets and the H2 perimeter.

A 50-Meter Walk Turned Into a 3-Kilometer Ordeal

The southern gate of the mosque, once the primary entrance for nearby residents, has been closed since 1994. What was once a short walk to the mosque now requires a lengthy detour through military checkpoints, electronic gates, and iron barriers. According to residents, accessing the mosque requires navigating checkpoints, electronic gates, and barriers where Palestinians report experiencing searches, detention, and harassment.

Large numbers of people are now prevented from reaching the mosque due to what Palestinian officials describe as arbitrary barrier placements and checkpoint closures. The call to prayer has been blocked frequently, according to the mosque’s director, Moataz Abu Sneineh.

The restrictions do not ease for holidays. The Israeli army imposed a curfew on several Palestinian neighborhoods in central Hebron during the Jewish holiday of Passover in early April, affecting hundreds of families. Jaber told the Anadolu Agency that the army did not specify the duration of the closure, but based on previous years, it typically lasts a full week.

Population Collapse in H2

The human cost of these restrictions shows up starkly in population data. When the Hebron Agreement was signed in 1997, tens of thousands of Palestinians lived in the H2 area. Today, only about 7,000 remain. That represents a dramatic decline over less than three decades.

The displacement has roots in a combination of road closures, shop shutdowns, curfews, and settler violence. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has documented numerous military checkpoints for Palestinians in and around occupied Hebron. Roads that once connected Palestinian neighborhoods to the commercial heart of the old city have been blocked or restricted. Al-Shuhada Street, formerly a major thoroughfare, has been severely restricted for Palestinian access.

Issa Amro, director of Youth Against Settlements, described how remaining Palestinian residents live under constant pressure from settlers and soldiers, with regular settler gatherings at the mosque.

The February Power Transfer

In February, the Israeli cabinet approved a transfer of licensing, building, and municipal administration powers in Hebron from the Palestinian municipality to the Israeli Civil Administration. The decision drew immediate criticism from Palestinian leaders and international observers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned against the deepening of Israeli control over Palestinian land in the West Bank.

The move consolidates Israeli administrative authority over a city that has been a flashpoint of the occupation for decades. Palestinian officials describe it as part of a broader pattern: the gradual institutional absorption of Hebron’s old city into the Israeli settlement infrastructure.

Reports from Israeli media have indicated that the Civil Administration is also seeking to transfer authority over the mosque itself to the religious council of the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement. If carried out, this would represent a direct institutional seizure of one of Islam’s most significant religious sites.

Echoes of Al-Aqsa

Abu Sneineh, the mosque’s director, sees a deliberate pattern connecting the restrictions at the Ibrahimi Mosque to Israel’s approach at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Both sites have been subjected to expulsion orders against Palestinian religious officials, restrictions on worshipper numbers, and military control over access points.

Palestinian officials describe Israeli efforts to control the mosque and restrict worshipper access throughout the year, including during Ramadan. Abu Sneineh said that restrictions intensified after October 2023, characterizing them as efforts to diminish the Islamic character of the site.

The Israeli army issued orders in January to remove Abu Sneineh and other mosque employees for a period. Access to the mosque for Palestinians was closed entirely for several days beginning in late February; it reopened in early March for a limited number of worshippers.

Israeli officials frame these measures as security requirements for protecting the settler population. But the pattern of escalation, especially the administrative power transfer and the removal of religious staff, goes well beyond what security considerations alone would explain.

The Long Shadow of 1994

The current restrictions trace directly back to the massacre on February 25, 1994, when Baruch Goldstein, a US-born Israeli settler and member of the far-right Kach movement, opened fire on Palestinian worshippers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Dozens of people were killed and over a hundred injured. Goldstein was beaten to death by survivors.

What followed the massacre was not a reversal of Israeli settlement policy in Hebron. It was an intensification. The mosque was divided, with a section allocated for Jewish worship. Military checkpoints multiplied. Palestinian movement was restricted while settlers moved freely.

Goldstein’s grave in Kiryat Arba has reportedly served as a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists. The ideological movement he represented, Kahanism, has since entered Israeli mainstream politics through Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, which joined the governing coalition under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mamoun Wazwaz, a survivor of the massacre, expressed concern in a 2023 Jacobin interview about the political ascent of settler leaders in the Israeli government.

The connection between domestic Israeli politics and the situation on the ground in Hebron is not abstract. Ben-Gvir, now national security minister, is himself a resident of Kiryat Arba and has been associated with extremist views.

Surveillance, Settlement, and Shrinking Space

Hebron’s trajectory fits within a wider pattern of Israeli control across the occupied West Bank, where omnipresent surveillance technology and physical barriers have reshaped daily Palestinian life. The combination of military infrastructure, administrative takeover, and settler expansion creates a system that some rights organizations have described as apartheid.

According to Palestinian rights groups, the division of the mosque after the massacre was viewed as an initial step in Israeli efforts to secure control of the holy site. The Israeli military now controls the mosque, restricting Palestinian access during Jewish observances.

Residents describe a life of constant confrontation. Settlers in the old city have thrown urine and acid at Palestinian pedestrians. Emad Abu Shamsiyeh, who lives near the illegal Ramat Yeshai settlement, told Al Jazeera that settlers have thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at his home, with one stone striking his 18-month-old grandchild.

The rare diplomatic talks between Palestinian and Israeli officials have done little to alter conditions on the ground. In Hebron, the direction of change has been consistent for three decades: more restrictions, fewer Palestinians, greater settler entrenchment.

What the Pattern Reveals

The situation at the Ibrahimi Mosque is a case study in how sacred sites become instruments of territorial control. The mosque’s religious significance makes it a prize that both communities claim. But the asymmetry of power between an occupying military force and a civilian population under occupation means that the contest is not really a contest at all. It is a gradual, bureaucratic process of displacement.

Israeli settlers first established an illegal presence in Hebron in 1968, one year after Israel seized the West Bank. In the nearly six decades since, the settlement infrastructure has expanded while the Palestinian presence has contracted. The 1994 massacre did not interrupt this trajectory. It accelerated it.

The February 2026 administrative transfer marks another step. Each measure builds on the last: a gate closed here, a checkpoint added there, a municipal function transferred, a religious official expelled. No single action looks dramatic in isolation. The cumulative effect is a city being remade around its Palestinian residents, who find themselves living in an ever-smaller space.

For the thousands of Palestinians still in H2, the question is not whether conditions will improve. The question is how long they can hold on.

Photo by Murat Halıcı on Pexels